Philip Brown

Migration and work in the United Kingdom: Mobility and the social order

In this paper we seek to highlight the interconnectedness between work and migration and the maintenance of the new social order in the United Kingdom. The content of this article is based upon a number of qualitative research projects that the authors have been involved with over recent years. These research projects have shown the way in which work is interwoven into the migration and settlement experiences of various new migrants, and how this relates to mobility within UK society. Under this common theme we explore the role of immigrants within the United Kingdoms division of labour, and how in turn economic mobility and mobility in terms of work is described, experienced and managed by migrants themselves. We analyse how issues of governance relate to issues of mobility for citizens and migrants. We explore how the official framework for the regulation of labour migration is reflected and refracted in the accounts given by a range of migrants in the United Kingdom, including foreign recruits, irregular workers, asylum seekers and work ‘visa’ holders.

Changing homelessness services: revanchism, 'professionalisation' and resistance.

This paper argues that the increasing international salience of homelessness can be partially explained by reference to the revanchist thesis (involving processes of coerced exclusion and abjection), but the situation on the ground is more complex. It reports on interviews with 18 representatives of 11 homelessness service providers in one city in England. As Cloke et al. found, these providers tended to be either larger, more ‘professional’, ‘insider’ services or smaller, more ‘amateur’, ‘outsider’ services. However, this does not mean that the former were necessarily more revanchist and the latter less so. Rather, the actions of both types of organisation could, in some cases, be construed as both advancing and counteracting a revanchist project.

Making Sense? The Support of Dispersed Asylum Seekers

Reforms of the system for the accommodation and support needs of asylum seekers entering the United Kingdom (UK) during the twentieth and early twenty‐first centuries have meant that the support of asylum seekers has largely moved away from mainstream social work to dedicated asylum support teams. This article investigates how the workers engaged as ‘asylum support workers’ understand and make sense of their participation in the support of asylum seekers dispersed across the UK. By drawing on qualitative research with asylum support workers, this paper looks at how such workers make sense of their roles and how the ‘support’ of asylum seekers is conceived. The paper concludes that, by working in this political and controversial area of work, workers are constantly finding ways to negotiate their support role within a dominant framework of control.

Meeting Workforce Needs?: Developing and Delivering Education for ‘Sustainable Communities’

Embedding notions of sustainability within both higher education and practice occasionally faces resistance. This chapter details one such experience of resistance by drawing on attempts in the last decade to develop and embed the concept of ‘sustainable communities’ in higher education and professional practice within the United Kingdom (UK). The Foundation Degree in Sustainable Communities (FdSc) was developed by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) in partnership with a select number of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The development of the FdSc was spurred by, what was perceived as, the significant lack of skills, within the various sectors, required to deliver New Labour’s ‘Sustainable Communities’ agenda within a framework of regeneration. By drawing upon research with the HCA, HEIs and students this chapter explores the development of the FdSc and reflects upon the experience of the various stakeholders who have played a part in the delivery of the programme. A positive unanticipated outcome of this process; the collaborative working, provides ideas as to how to increase the effectiveness of collaboration across HEIs generally. The chapter also highlights various challenges and dilemmas’ facing the FdSc as it was delivered within a very different political and public milieu to that of the 2000s. The chapter focuses on the difficulties that can be faced by HEIs when they become the delivery agents of political discourse.

Accommodating Travelling Showpeople in England

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